That Time Batman Was a Good Dad, Kinda

Dunking on the Dark Knight for being an emotionally constipated stick in the mud is practically a national pastime. I include myself in that, because seriously, have you seen the guy? But that’s not entirely fair. In the 80-plus years since his debut, Batman has gone through many creative teams, each of which had a different concept of how Batman should be. Some incarnations are better adjusted than others, especially when it comes to how Batman treats his ever-growing number of sidekicks/adopted children. In honor of Father’s Day, I’m taking a look back at a story from Batman #20, which shows off the Caped Crusader’s softer side.
Published in 1944, this story has the unwieldy title of “Bruce Wayne Loses the Guardianship of Dick Grayson!” I wonder what the plot could be?

Somehow, Batman’s first move is not to investigate the holy heck out of these people. It’s not his second, third, or fourth move either. In fact, we never see him do any detective work of any sort in this issue. Instead we get this subplot about a gangster named Fatso Foley who has it out for Batman because reasons. But we’ll get into that later.
As you may imagine, Dick is disinclined to go live with these weirdos, so George and Clara d
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